§ Lord Faulkner of Worcesterasked Her Majesty's Government:
What directions they have given the Environment Agency regarding the discharge of technetium-99 into the Irish Sea from Sellafield. [HL2757]
§ Lord WhittyIn 1999, at the time that the discharge limit for technetium-99(Tc-99) was reduced from 200 TBq/year to 90 TBq/year, we asked the Environment Agency to carry out a review of Tc-99 discharges and report its findings in advance of those for the main review of all other radioactive discharges from the Sellafield site. Following public consultation on its proposals the agency published its proposed decision for Tc-99 in September 2001. In December of last year, we announced our agreement with the agency's proposals which, when implemented, would result in the Tc-99 discharge limit being reduced to 10 TBq/year in 2006.